A Glimpse Into The Future

My eye has been caught by a stunning new gadget - the Immortal Video Eye Gear.

Head mounted 3-megapixel video camera.  Seamlessly embedded within a pair of innocuous looking sun glasses.  At £250, they're not cheap.  While battery life looks good at 2.5 hours, they can only record one hour of video.

No method of playback means no deletion, so you're stuck until you can find a laptop.  No expandable memory.  Would it have been so hard to take microSD cards?

Regardless of any shortcomings, take a look at the video quality it provides.  Sound quality is mono - but good enough for capturing voices.

The only question I have is whether they use a standard USB socket, or whether they require some proprietary cable.

Compared to something like a FlipMino HD, the Immortal glasses are really pricey.  Mini HD cameras on Amazon are between £130 and £150. So you're paying a £100 premium to have the electronics shrunk into your glasses.  And you only get standard definition.

But enough about the downside - let's think of the amazing uses these could be put to.

Possible Uses

Documentary / Social Commentary.  Wearing an pair of sunglasses is relatively normal.  It would help documentary subject forget about the camera in the room.  Also as a method of quasi-covert filming, capturing people's attitudes and behaviours when they think no one is looking.

Protesters. Watch the video of Sgt Smellie striking a protester, it looks to me like police brutality - yet he was acquitted. Imagine how much more potent the images would have been if we'd had the protester's eye view of being assaulted.

Augmented Reality.  As much as I love Layar, it's a pain having to hold a phone up to the world.  Combined with Vuzix - video-screen glasses - you could have perfect augmented reality superimposed on what you were looking at. Of course, video glasses are pretty pricey but it's a combo we'll see before long.

Movie Piracy!  Although even the best anti-judder technology isn't going to mask someone chuckling.

What Next

I'd love to get my hands on this technology, but at this price-point it falls a little short.  I would expect either higher quality footage or a longer recording time.  No doubt the next version will have a basic HUD as well.

You can buy the Immortal Video Camera Glasses for £250.